Harvard University has launched an academic initiative called the Institute for Rebooting Social Media, which aims to fix social media's most urgent problems.

Described as a “three-year pop up initiative”, the institute will focus on addressing misinformation, privacy breaches, harassment and content governance.

The institute is part of the University’s Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society (BKCIS) and it is being funded with £1.5 million from the John...